DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Agricultural Marketing Service National Organic Program:Notice of Draft Guidance for Calculating the Percentage of Organic Ingredients in Multingredient Products Link to Full Article

The Lake Champlain Phosphorus Crisis The Times Argus | February 17, 2017 John MCLAUGHRY The Vermont Legislature is now well into the final chapter of a high-stakes saga that began in 2010. At its center is the phosphorus level in Lake Champlain, especially in St. Albans and Missisquoi bays. As a state document explains, “In Continue Reading

January 31, 2017 News Release: Sterling College Leaders of the sustainable agriculture and craft food production movements will be coming to Sterling College this summer as visiting instructors of the School of the New American Farmstead. The School of the New American Farmstead has announced its summer continuing education offerings for aspiring agrarians and artisan Continue Reading

January 30, 2017 Jane Linholm In his fictional Kingdom County, Vermont author Howard Frank Mosher brought to life the culture and landscape of the Northeast Kingdom. Beloved by Vermonters and beyond, Mosher’s work stands as a testament to the power of storytelling. Mosher died at the age of 74 at his home in Irasburg. His passing comes after Mosher Continue Reading

Patti Daniels and Jane Lindolhm January 16, 2017 One-point-three billion dollars. That’s the total amount the state thinks it needs to clean up Lake Champlain and other waterways over the next 20 years. So where does the money come from? The Treasurer’s Office has just released a report that maps out how to raise most Continue Reading

UVM: Industrial Hemp Research Program The UVM Extension’s Northwest Crops & Soils Program started an industrial hemp research program in 2016. The 2014 Farm Bill has allowed academic institutions, like UVM, to legally develop research programs to evaluate industrial hemp as a commercial crop and we see that as a great opportunity in an emerging Continue Reading

Chicago Tribune By: Marvin Perez and Jennifer Jacobs January 2, 2017 Sonny Perdue III, the former governor of Georgia, is president-elect Donald Trump‘s leading candidate to be his U.S. secretary of agriculture, according to a person familiar with the matter. Perdue, 70, would succeed Tom Vilsack. Perdue met with Trump Nov. 30 and afterward said Continue Reading

Vermont Business Magazine December 21, 2016 Tebbetts previously served as Vermont’s Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from 2007 to 2009, supporting the Agency in its mission and overseeing the consumer protection division. Since 2009, he has worked as news director at WCAX, Vermont’s CBS television affiliate, where he had previously spent 13 years as a journalist. Continue Reading

Farm Household Income Forecast USDA – Economic Research Service January 9, 2017 Median Income of Farm Operator Households Expected To Stabilize in 2016 The median income of U.S. farm households increased steadily over 2010-14, reaching an estimated $81,637 in 2014. After dipping in 2015 to $76,735, median household income is forecast to remain essentially unchanged in Continue Reading

January 2, 2017 Patti Daniels and Jane Lindholm There’s an idealized image of agriculture that has animals, the environment, food and farmers themselves thriving in a balanced ecosystem. On the next Vermont Edition, we’ll talk with supporters of an idea called “regenerative agriculture” about what it would take to build that kind of agricultural model Continue Reading